The Community Organisations Cost of Living Fund - video summary

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  2. The Community Organisations Cost of Living Fund - video summary

Video summary of the Community Organisations Cost ot Living Fund

YouTube, 11 minutes.

Visit main page for Community Organisations Cost of Living Fund.

Video transcript

Welcome to this overview summary of the Community Organisations Cost of Living Fund. For any questions, please do contact our advice line. The details for which are on the final slide.

This funding is for organisations that support people and communities under severe pressure because of the increased cost of living. It's possible to apply for between £10,000 and £75,000. Applications for funding of under £10,000 should apply to our (National Lottery) Awards for All programme.

We are more likely to fund small and medium-sized frontline organisations who have an annual turnover of between £10,000 and £1 million. Larger organisations can still apply as long as they can show that they work closely and effectively with local communities and fill a gap in essential local services.

We want to support a range of critical services that reach as many local communities and groups of people as possible. This will be one of the things that we think about when deciding which applications to fund.

Applications open on the 24th July 2023 and will close at noon on the 16th October 2023. All funding will need to have been spent by the 31st March 2024.

You can apply if you are one of the types of organisations shown on the screen. Some types of organisations, however, can't apply, and they include

  • organisations that have already applied for this funding
  • Statutory bodies, including town parish and community councils
  • Schools
  • Individuals
  • sole traders, and
  • organisations that are applying on behalf of another or a partnership.

To apply, your organization must already be running critical services around at least one of the following;

  • providing food and emergency supplies like food or baby banks, or the provision of hot meals, clothes, or toiletries.
  • Providing emergency shelter such as night shelters or other accommodation for people experiencing homelessness.
  • Providing safe spaces like domestic abuse services and youth services.
  • Providing warmth such as warm rooms or warm spaces.
  • Provision of financial and housing advice.
  • Giving people advice, perhaps because of the increased cost of living.

Your organisation, in addition, must also be facing both an increased demand for these critical services and increased costs in delivering these critical services.

It could be that you're delivering a one-stop shop model where people can access food, warmth, and money advice services within a community setting. Or you may be providing a single individual service. Please do note that these are the eligibility requirements, and so your application must demonstrate how you meet these. We will only fund organisations that are experiencing increased demand for critical services and increased costs in delivering them. We want to help organisations meet the needs of their communities while staying financially stable. If you apply, we will ask you to tell us about the increased demand for your services and the increased costs of running them. This could, for instance, include more people using your service. Or it could be that you have the same number of people, but they're needing more help.

In terms of the funding available, we're able to fund the increased cost to your existing services and for the costs linked to expanding or adapting your services. These could include staff salaries, volunteer costs, service delivery, including any direct costs associated with delivering, expanding, or adapting new services - such as materials, new equipment, or room hire.

We can also fund small scale refurbishment that may be needed to deliver the expanded or adapted services that you're applying for. For example, perhaps installing a partition in a community centre so that people can access financial advice privately. Or upgrading a kitchen to provide meals in a warm hub. But please note these must be fully complete and paid for by the 31st March 2024.

Maybe we can also pay for improvements to your systems and infrastructure that are needed to deliver the expanded or adapted services. Or for the training and development of staff and volunteers delivering the services you are applying for. Perhaps also for the organisational development and capacity building, as long as that is not the focus of your application.

It’s possible to apply for a share of your organisation's overheads that are needed to run the services you're applying for. For example, any fixed costs to support the running of your organisation, such as the overall management administration, support staff, rent, and utilities. There's a guide to full cost recovery available on our website.

Unfortunately, we aren't able to fund critical services that are not experiencing increased demand and increased costs. We can't fund brand new services as we're only able to fund existing adapted or expanded services. We can't fund services that are being delivered outside of England. Or for larger building works or maintenance or any refurbishment work that is not completed and paid for by the 31st March 2024. We can't pay for the purchase of buildings or land or for campaigning, political, or lobbying activities. Neither can we fund giving cash directly to people experiencing hardship.

As we identified earlier, there are two elements to this funding. Firstly, the costs linked to expanding or adapting your critical service. And secondly, the increased costs of delivering your existing critical services. Looking at expanding or adapting costs, first - we can fund expanding or adapting your critical service, but only from the date that we're able to award you funding. So example, if we offered you funding on the 1st October, this part of the funding would cover the period 1st October 23 to the 31st March 24. Because of this, you should not increase how much your organisation is spending until we've been able to offer you funding as we may not be able to fund everyone who applies.

The second element of this funding relates to the increased costs of delivering existing critical services. Here we can retrospectively fund the costs you’ve incurred between the 24th July 2023, the date the funding became available, and the date that we offer you a grant about 12 weeks after you submit your application. But these costs can only be for running the existing critical services that you're applying for and not for anything else. We know it's unusual for funding to be available for retrospective costs, but we want to support your organisation as much as we can with this funding.

This slide looks at how the two elements work together and are a reminder that here we're looking at costs related to delivering critical services. So the two elements; we can pay a contribution to your delivery and running costs from the 24th July 2023 to the 31st March 2024. And for costs related to the expansion or adaption of your services, this would be from the date we award you funding until the 31st March 2024.

Part of the application is a budget table which allows you to claim for a proportion of direct core and running costs. We would be making a minimum of two payments. One covering retrospective costs and the other over the future costs.

We do anticipate very high demand for this funding. Please note that applications will close at midday on the 16th October 2023. If we've already given you funding to help with the rising cost of living, we will need you to tell us how the funding you're applying for now is different from that. It usually takes around 12 weeks to get a decision from us. You should not increase how much your organisation is spending until we've offered you funding, as we may not be able to fund everyone who applies. And you can only apply once for the Community Organisations Cost of Living Fund. So please do make sure you apply for everything you need. There's lots of information on our website, so please do visit.

You can only apply once for this funding, so it's really important that you ensure you're eligible to apply and that you meet the criteria. Once again please do check our website as all the information is there together with the documents that you'll need and the application form.

And to summarize the key points:

We can fund a contribution to your direct delivery costs from the 24th July 2023 to the 31st March 2024.

We can also fund your future costs to adapt or expand your service from the date we award you funding.

The funding must be spent by the 31st March 2024.

And in order to qualify, you must be running critical services in at least one of the following areas;

  • provision of food
  • provision of emergency shelter
  • providing safe spaces
  • warmth
  • financial and housing advice.

And have increased demand for those critical services. And be facing increased costs in the delivery of those critical services.

If you have any further questions, please do contact our advice line. The details for which are showing on the screen.


Visit main page for Community Organisations Cost of Living Fund.